TRAVEL The Scottish Baronial style Torridon Lodge Hotel was built in 1887 as a hunting lodge, now one of Scotland’s premier country hotels. Highland SCOTLAND’S NORTH COAST 500 WINDS AROUND THE EXTREME NORTH OF BRITAIN. IT’S A TIGHT > Story and Images by SQUEEZE, AND A FEAST FOR THE SENSES. Christopher P. Baker fter a night of old-world luxury at Kinloch House, in lever. Thanks to razor-sharp ABS, the panicked buck missed by Blairgowrie, Scotland, and barely five minutes into a inches and disappeared, hooves flailing. Amorning ride, the sun was peeking over the pines. The Setting out from Edinburgh for the Scottish Highlands, I’d road still shaded and slippery with the sheen of rain, a triangular considered the possibility of shaggy Highland wildlife leaping warning sign was spotted, portraying a stag: “4 miles.” across the road, never anticipating it happening so soon. Seconds later, a deer was racing parallel on the left, beyond a In 2015, the North Highland Initiative conceived the “North stone wall, perhaps 10 feet away. Synapses had barely registered Coast 500,” stitching together various roads to form a touring when the beast leaped the wall and rocketed straight at me. route. Carving a tortuous course around the untamed north Adrenaline slapped me sheer in my seat as I jerked the brake extreme of the U.K., and marketed by Visit Scotland as an equiv- 24 MCN I For Enthusiasts MCNEWS.COM 24x28 Scotland.indd 24 2/28/18 10:06 AM John O’Groats Durness Exploration of the “impressive cultural heritage” of the Scottish Wick North Highlands along the NC500 route would be incomplete without visits to castles, cathe- drals and ruins. Among the many castles en route are: Inverness Cas- tle in Inverness, Castle Lochinver Leod in Strathpeffer, Dunrobin Castle in Suth- erland, Sinclair & Gir- nigoe ruins near Wick, Castle of Mey near John O’Groats, Thurso Castle in Thurso, Castle Varrich ruin near Tongue and Ardvreck Castle ruins on Loch Assynt. Cathedrals are located in Dornoch and Fortrose and the Nigg Old Church in Nigg contains a monument dating to the eighth Torridon century. Learn more at northcoast500.com Inverness Applecross alent to American’s iconic Route 66, the 512-mile NC500 combines the best in- gredients of adventure, freedom and epic landscapes with exhilarating switchbacks and twisties. It’s as thrilling a journey as any in the Kingdom, drawing motorcyclists like bees to brambles in bloom. Adding arti- san whiskey distilleries, salty-aired fishing villages and historic, haunted castle hotels, a wedding invite in England was all the reason needed for a Highland fling. Visit Scotland had themed 2017 to celebrate “impressive cultural heritage.” “The forecast will be the sky in front of you. In Scotland, there’s little point in looking any further ahead,” warned Calum Murray, of Saltire Motorcycles, when picking up the loaner bike on a Two riders ascend Britain’s longest sustained climb, the Bealach na Bà switchback. gloriously sunny Edinburgh day. The ‘Pass of the Cattle’ is also Britain’s third highest mountain pass. The ride north to Inverness—the official beginning and end for the NC500 a shroud of drizzle as I hugged the A9, ing from the mist like Brigadoon, the loop—via the Cairngorms Mountains northbound for Wick. Fortunately, this French-style chateau looked like a piece offered plenty of time to adjust to the 100-mile first day was replete with cultur- of the Loire Valley transplanted. Happy Indian Roadmaster’s big-twin brawn. al draws, highlighted by Dunrobin Castle, to escape the “dreich” (dreary) weather, It was raining as I departed Inverness. south of Brora. hours were spent exploring its 189 rooms, The North Sea was lost to view through With its fairytale conical towers emerg- crawling along like a caterpillar. Though MCNEWS.COM Ride Better I MCN 25 24x28 Scotland.indd 25 2/18/18 4:09 PM hawking displays are given in the garden below, all flights were grounded. Upon departure, the rain began sheeting down. Thankfully, the full-dress tourer reduced “droukit” (drench). En- sconced in a cocoon of comfort, acres of wrap-around fairing shoveled the torrent aside, aided by leg guards, a sculpted well-heated saddle, and adjustable electronic windshield. Still, riding in rain is not fun. A break for the whiskey 101 tour at Clynelish Distillery forwent a “wee dram,” of course. No bottle and throttle! Scotland’s weather is famously fickle. Riding through cold, pea-soup fog was unnerving. The road to Berriesdale climbed steeply and tightened into whiplash-sharp coils hemmed by bare- ly-visible walls of wet Caithness flagstone. The onboard tablet-like navigation was zoomed to a full-screen road map, giving a real-time visual of each bend ahead. Magically, the clouds cleared while pulling up to crenellated Ackergill Tower, perched atop the craggy cliffs of Caith- ness, as if conjured for a Hollywood mov- ie. With its tartan carpets, wood-paneled Great Hall and cozy antique-filled guest rooms, the 15th-century baronial-style hotel, proffered a warm “couthie” (pleas- ant) welcome at the end of a wet and wintry Scottish summer day. A liveried butler emerged to ooh and ahh at the black-and-cream eye-candy bike as I photographed it by the entrance. Oodles of chrome dazzled in the late afternoon sunlight against a deep cobalt blue sky. Beyond John O’Groats village, was the first taste of the lauded NC500 drama, as the A836 swept westward in broad scimitars through a vast expanse of Late afternoon sunlight outside Ackergill Tower Hotel. A perfect complement to the luxe of this 15th-century country house hotel, near Wick, Scotland. wind-scoured bog and moor. Abandoned crofts—melancholic mementos of the gunmetal-gray village of Kyle of Lochalsh. carnation-pink sands dissolving into Highland Clearances, when landowners Charcoal clouds draped the brooding Caribbean blue seas. evicted tenants for more profitable sheep hulks of Ben Hope and Ben Loyal moun- Beyond Durness, the thread-thin road grazing—haunted the austere, yet blin- tains to the south. unfurled south, streaming through a dingly beautiful landscape. The NC500 shrank to a narrow single wild, minimalist landscape of breath- Not a town for miles, nor service sta- lane around Loch Eribol, painted in taking grandeur, like fine whiskey tions, rare as the Scottish wildcat. Briefly patches of turquoise and teal by crepus- pouring through heather. Dome-shaped engaging in a sublime, throttle-open ride cular pencils of sunlight. Westward, on mountains rose sheer from thistle-strewn through cliff-top curves, sheep scattered the A838, the kaleidoscope twirled again moors with wind-ruffled lochans. Empti- at the lion-like roar of the engine, before as the road rolled in swooping arcs past ness and humbling beauty. This was what settling on saner speed. surging peninsulas and postcard-perfect the hype was all about. From the village of Tongue, the road beaches with melodic names—Ceann na Passing Places were spaced, on aver- clawed down past Castle Varich to the Beinne, Sango Beag and Balnakeil—and age, every one hundred meters. Fortu- 26 MCN I For Enthusiasts MCNEWS.COM 24x28 Scotland.indd 26 2/18/18 4:09 PM In many places, the NC500 narrows down to a single-track road, with passing places spaced on average every one hun- dred yards, as noted here, in the remote Assynt peninsula. nately, most vehicles courteously pulled over. Riding cautiously, the Roadmaster seemed out of place as dual sports and sportbikes flashed by. Many motorcyclists attempt to ride the NC500 in one day, unfortunately giving no heed to courtesy, and blazing past like commuters recklessly lane-splitting a Los Angeles freeway. Crossing the curving Kylesku Bridge, the NC500 turns right onto the infamous- ly tortuous, testy and car-wide B869, circling the remote Assynt Peninsula. An E-Ticket ride, the writhing snake-thin roller-coaster—nicknamed the “wee bad road” by locals—plunged and peaked like the skirl of bagpipes. The blind bends A motorcyclist heading counter-clockwise on the NC500 arrives at the 2,305-foot and sharp-curved summits required summit of the mist-shrouded Bealach na Bà pass. hyperattention and judicious, nonstop feathering of throttle and clutch. Techni- anely, I arrived at the Inver Lodge Hotel, Drumrunie. Setting out before coffee cal road riding at its best. perched over Loch Inver. kicked in led to running south on the A red fox trotted across the road. As I From Lochinver village, route A837 un- tendril track to Inverkirkaig and Badna- stopped to raise the camera, she turned spools east past Loch Assynt and skews gyle, through the heart of the Coigach bushy tail and merged into the gorse south to Ledmore Junction, where a right Peninsula. Nae problem, being treated like a ghost. Exhilarated and grinning in- turn onto the A835 leads to Ullapool, via to singular views of Suilven, Cul Mor and MCNEWS.COM Ride Better I MCN 27 24x28 Scotland.indd 27 2/18/18 4:10 PM South of Durness, a rider heads north through the Assynt region, where inselbergs rise dramatically over the moors and lochans. Stac Pollaidh. Inconceivably old, whis- and racks of antlers over the massive Cattle,” before dropping back down to ky-brown islands of quartzite-capped fireplace recalled its stately past. the A896 at Tornapress. Fueled up on Torridian sandstone silhouetted through I sank into a plump leather chair in the coffee, cheesecake and petrol, the bike intermittent curtains of rain. Scotland’s whiskey bar and savored a dram of light, pointed toward Bealach na Bà. “Not savage beauty brought a smile as streaks fresh, peaty 12-year-old Bunnahabhain; advised for learner drivers” read a sign at of sunlight suddenly sliced down through one of more than 350 malt whiskies fill- the foot of this notoriously treacherous the clouds, gilding the mountains.